Drexel University Students Protest Presence of National Guard on Campus
“has made many students feel uncomfortable and unsafe”
The National Guard is not on Drexel University’s campus for anything to do with the school. They’re using part of a building as a base of operations. Yet the students are protesting this.
Inside Higher Ed reports:
Drexel Students Protest National Guard Presence on Campus
Drexel University students took to social media and wrote letters to President John Fry on Tuesday to criticize the use of a government-owned building on the Philadelphia campus as a headquarters for members of the National Guard. Hundreds of Guard members were called up on June 1 by Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf and sent to the city to respond to the protests and property destruction that erupted over the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
The Guard members are using the Armory, a building owned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the longtime home to the National Guard’s 103rd Engineering Battalion, as a operations and communications command center, Fry said in a message to students and staff members Tuesday. Part of the building has also been leased by Drexel, a private institution, since 2008, and is used as a practice facility for university athletics.
Students who live in nearby apartment complexes and a university residence hall were warned on June 1 that they may see National Guard vehicles and members in the area and at the Armory, according to an email from University Crossings, an off-campus apartment located one block away from the Armory. A letter shared on social media as a template for students to send to Fry said students “do not condone” the use of the Armory by the Guard and that their presence on and close to the campus “has made many students feel uncomfortable and unsafe.”
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Comments
Here’s an idea. Go make noise in front of the soldiers. Sing. Dance. Carry signs and yell insults. Put flowers in their gun barrels. That will definitely pacify them!
Here’s the thing … don’t be idiots.
If a “community” wants to decide who they’re more (or less) comfortable around, or doing, that’s fine.
— Guard makes people uncomfortable because they’re harbingers of violence n ect. is idiotic. Like yr safe from rioting goblins if you cover your eyes with a towel?
— There’s a clean, no-risk solution is idiotic. There are no solutions; only trade-offs.
— You’re aware of it, so it’s your business is idiotic. Not your building. Not your campus. Not your activities. So, not your business, with some very special, very limited, very standard exceptions.
(cont…)
— Own what you’re doing. If you’re gonna coerce people into doing what you prefer, own the imposition. If you’re gonna do that by extortion, own that you’re not just thugs, but lame ones.
Misleading headline. According to the story, these idiot students are protesting the presence of the National Guard in the State-owned Armory, which is off-campus, and over which the School has no authority and no control.
I’m reminded of a near out-of-the blue question during the post-event “networking” at a university b-plan group-grope a few years back.
“What do you think about worker exploitation?”
Now “exploited offshore workers” was all the buzz at the time, n the b-plans were near all distributed supply chain tech products or tech-enabled services. The question was meant as “evil Apple”, and “here’s your chance to signal you’re on the right team.”
“I think it’s really hard to exploit people without some form of coercion. Maybe fraud, but that’s kind of a form of coercion too — it’s hard to do fraud without some kind of advantaged position, n people won’t play with fraudsters for long unless forces.”
This was not the right answer, though I had an interesting time.
“What do you think of people feeling safe on campus?”
“Well, I’m for all the safety we can get, thought sometimes other things are more important. “Feeling safe” doesn’t track so well with acutal safety — goes with people’s neuroses and confusions.
I think individual people can go get all the feeling of safety they are willing to make for themselves. For “people” in bulk, which means you’re talking policy, I’d rather go for actual safety.”
I do wonder what the looting, beating, fire, n detainment counts are for the Natl Guard housed in that Armory.
Also, it’s an Armory. Says so on the label. What do they think the building is for? Idiots.
So, why are they “uncomfortable?”
They’re looking at intentional, competent force they don’t themselves control.
Scarey to realize that’s out there in the world. Of course thse particular larva didn’t count the rioting goblins as exactly the same thing — idiots.
Only the foolish would wonder why the National Guard is using facilities at a National Guard armory.
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